Clinamen, Rotonde de la Bourse de Commerce – Collection Pinault © Céleste Boursier-Mougenot / Adagp, Paris
A work resonating with space
Placed under the monumental dome of the building designed by architect Tadao Ando, clinamen unfolds all its incantatory power. A circular basin with a diameter of 18 meters fills the rotunda. On this expanse of still water float more than 200 white porcelain bowls set in motion by a barely perceptible current. When they meet, the bowls produce gentle sounds, creating a soft and vibrant music that fills the entire space.
The bowls become the instruments of a symphony without score or interpreter, a work in perpetual evolution, where music is born from the moment, from the interactions between matter, movement, and space.
Between art, physics, and philosophy
The title of the work, clinamen, refers to a concept from Epicurean physics: the unpredictable deviation in the movement of atoms, at the origin of creation and free will. This cosmic clinamen finds here a direct resonance: Boursier-Mougenot's installation also relies on the random, the fruitful chance, the absence of control.
Each visit thus becomes a singular experience, a suspended moment in a sensory universe. The water reflects the natural light whose rays pass through the dome while the bowls whisper and the visitor, immersed in this dreamlike atmosphere, is invited to slow down, listen, and feel.
Heir to Dada, Fluxus, and musical DIY
Céleste Boursier-Mougenot is not new to the experience of merging sound and space. Trained in music, the Nice-based artist has always played with the codes of composition, emancipating himself from traditional forms. His work is firmly rooted in a lineage with the Dada and Fluxus movements, but also with the New York punk music scene of the 1980s and the Do It Yourself aesthetic.
He diverts ordinary objects – here, bowls – which he frees from their function to make them the mediums of a sound plastic expression. In clinamen, the artist allows the elements to produce an organic form themselves, a living music of the present moment.
A work in perfect harmony with the place
The extreme accuracy of the dialogue between the installation and the architecture is an additional element of the enchanting effect. The enveloping silence of the rotunda thus becomes a space where dreams and meditation can flourish, a contemporary sanctuary where one comes to listen to the whisper of the meeting of water and porcelain. In a world saturated with noise and images, this installation invites a pause, a return to the essential: the beauty of a sound, of a silence, of a moment.
Clinamen, Rotonde de la Bourse de Commerce – Collection Pinault © Céleste Boursier-Mougenot / Adagp, Paris
Curator of the exhibition: Emma Lavigne, general curator and director of the Collection Pinault
Sonia Perrin